Perceived deficiencies in the federal judicial structure established by the Judiciary Act oe 1789—particularly deficiencies relating to the circuit court system—led the John Adams administration to overhaul the system by means of a new judiciary act that became law on February 13, 1801. The chief innovation of the Judiciary Act of 1801 was the abolition of circuit court duty for the justices of the Supreme Court and the creation of six new, independent circuit courts presided over by 16 newly appointed circuit court judges. Other new positions created by the act included United States marshals, clerks and attorneys.
The act became the subject of political controversy almost immediately. Thomas Jeeeerson and the Democratic-Republican Party had won the presidency and control of the House of Representatives in the election oe 1800, and President Adams moved to fill the new judicial offices with members of the outgoing Federalist Party before turning over the reins of power. Adams also took the opportunity presented by the resignation of Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth to appoint his secretary of state, John Marshall, to the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court. “[T]hey have retired into the judiciary as a stronghold,” Jefferson bitterly observed. “There the remains of federalism are to be preserved and fed from the treasury, and from that battery all the works of republicanism are to be beaten down and erased.” The judges appointed under the act were known as the “midnight judges,” an allusion to their having been appointed in the closing hours of the outgoing administration.
The new Congress immediately set about orchestrating the repeal of the 1801 Judiciary Act. However, repeal was constitutionally tricky. Article III of the Constitution provided that federal judges would hold their offices “during good behaviour.” This meant that the only way to oust a federal judge was by impeachment. The repeal debate centered on the question whether Congress could get around this safeguard by abolishing the court over which the judge presided. If it could, then why could Congress not abolish the courts of all politically unpopular judges and reestablish the same courts with new judges? On the other hand, if it could not, then would any reform of the judicial system have to await the death or retirement of all affected federal judges? In the end, Congress decided that repeal was constitutional and in 1802 voted the 1801 act out of existence. The Supreme Court was soon slated to reconvene, however, and a majority feared that the Marshall Court would claim the power of judicial review (the power to examine legislation for constitutionality) and hold otherwise, precipitating a constitutional crisis. Accordingly, they passed companion legislation abolishing the August term of the Supreme Court and effectively postponed Supreme Court consideration of the constitutionality question until February 1803, by which time things had cooled down a bit. The Judiciary Act of 1801 thus passed into history.
—Lindsay Robertson
Kalb, Johann, baron de (1721-1780) soldier Baron de Kalb was a German-born officer in the French infantry who served with the Continental army in the Revolutionary War (1775-83). De Kalb began his military career in 1743 as a lieutenant in the French army. He served with distinction in France’s European wars. In 1769 the French government sent him to the British North American colonies to observe the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain. He sent back detailed reports, but when the British intercepted his communications, French officials ordered him home. De Kalb returned to North America in 1777 after receiving a promise from Silas Deane that he would be given a command in the Continental army. He did not receive his own command, but de Kalb served admirably for the revolutionaries, spending the harsh winter of 1777-78 in Valley Forge with General George Washington and participating as second in command under marquis de Laeayette in an aborted raid on Canada in 1780. De Kalb moved south in the spring of 1780, taking an active role in the southern campaign under General Horatio Gates. Although de Kalb had advised against Gates’s attack at the Battle oe Camden (August 15, 1780), he followed orders and led his men into battle where he was mortally wounded.
Further reading: A. E. Zucker, General de Kalb: Lafayette’s Mentor (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966).
—Brett Adams
King, Rufus (1755-1827) statesman, signer of the U. S. Constitution
Rufus King was a state legislator, a member of Congress under the Articles oe Coneederation, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, a United States Senator, a minister to England, and a presidential and vice-presidential candidate. He was a member of the Federalist
Party, an ardent Anglophile, and a successful lawyer. King was at the center of many of the key issues of his day and an outspoken opponent of slavery.
Born in Scarboro, Massachusetts (present-day Maine), King left home at the age of 12 to attend a boarding school and later went to Harvard College where he graduated in 1777. He began to train for the law in Newburyport, but he interrupted his studies in 1778 to join the revolutionary forces under General John Sullivan in the campaign in Rhode Island. King opened his law practice in 1780, and since he was smart and a good public speaker, he quickly developed a good clientele. He first joined the Massachusetts state legislature in 1783 and was reelected three times. From 1784 to 1786 he served in Congress, where he introduced a resolution banning slavery in the Northwest Territory. He went to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 convinced that the Articles of Confederation could be saved but was converted to an ardent supporter of the new United States Constitution.
King married Mary Alsop in 1786 and moved to New York in 1788, where he was elected to the state legislature and was chosen as a U. S. senator in 1789. King aligned himself with the Federalist Party and supported the economic goals of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. In 1791 he was appointed a director of the First Bank oe the United States. Reelected to the Senate in 1795, a year later he resigned to become minister to England, a post he held until 1803. It was not the easiest time to be a diplomat. The French Revolution (1789-99) had led to war in Europe, and both France and Great Britain were interfering with U. S. merchant vessels. Opinion in the United States was particularly negative toward the British because of the impressment of sailors into the British navy. King could not stop impressment, but he provided a calming presence that helped to ease tensions between the two nations.
King returned to the United States in 1803 and became a leader of the Federalist Party. He ran unsuccessfully for
Vice president in 1804 and 1808. During the War of 1812 (1812-15) he was again elected to the Senate. In 1816 he ran for president against James Monroe and lost. In 1820 he displayed his long-standing opposition to slavery when he argued against the Missouri Compromise. He believed that the issue of slavery had to be settled by compensated emancipation and colonization. In 1825 he once again served as minister to England at the request of President John Quincy Adams but soon fell ill and had to return home. Rufus King died in 1827 less than a year later.
See also foreign affairs.
Further reading: Robert Ernst, Rufus King: American Federalist (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968).
—J. Brett Adams
World History
